The study, which paid attention to cases from March 2020 to December 2021, was carried out by a team of local researchers under the health ministry.
Any unusual mortality increase during a specific period is referred to as excess mortality.
According to the principal investigator of this study, Dr Shubash Shander Ganapathy, from the Institute for Public Health, Malaysia’s estimated excess mortality rate as of December last year was lower than many countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and the US.
An analysis of the excess mortality in the country between March 2020 and June 2021 showed a reduction in cases coming into hospitals. This resulted in a reduced number of deaths in hospitals (-19,099).
The initial analysis showed that there was a reduction in deaths linked to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and hypertension.
Shubash said changes in lifestyle and eating habits during lockdown periods could have attributed to the reduction in deaths.
However, between July 2021 and December 2021, there was an increase in deaths occurring both in hospitals and outside hospitals (+27,013). This surge could be attributed to the infections linked to the Covid-19 Delta variant.
“The final numbers show that almost 55% of excess deaths had occurred in hospitals, compared to 45% of excess deaths happening outside hospitals.
“This is the same percentage of deaths recorded in hospitals and outside hospitals, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
“This indicates that there has been no change in the pattern of seeking healthcare services and being able to obtain these services in Malaysia, throughout the pandemic,” he told reporters during a media briefing.
The study also found that Malays and Indians were more affected during the pandemic and had higher excess mortality compared to the Chinese.
He noted that the Chinese had a lower prevalence of NCDs and better health literacy.
Meanwhile, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the high level of compliance by the public on the SOPs and wide coverage of Covid-19 vaccinations were the main reasons for the low excess mortality in the country.
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